[steve55]

I continue to get nasty surprises in my search for a US surgeon(sigh). Dr Bitan's biller has now said that the $15K DOES NOT cover the entire procedure and that I would need to add on my 30% copay for the Anesthesiologist and the hospital. If those 2 are out of network, and I know for sure the Anesthesiologist is, then when they bill me at regular insurance rates, Im sure (well, Im presuming )the cost will jump to a total of $18-20K at minimum? I guess I did not think to clarify whether her quote was for the entire procedure. But when I spoke with Dr Bitan, we talked about this 30% co pay and issue and he thought we could waive the 30%, he must have meant his fees only. Though I did not get the impression that that was what he meant. When a patient discusses cost of a procedure, one would think that the doc or biller would presume that he or she obviously talking about the total cost. We as patients really need to spell it out I guess. I just didnt think I had to be specific, I mean, why would I as a patient only be concerned about doctor fees when discussing getting a quote? That wouldnt make sense. This all may turn out to be pie in the sky quotes in the end. We'll see though.

Dr Regan's biller is waiting for my insurance before going any further, but yet she wants me to start on getting local lab tests done here in the meantime to speed up the surgury date. But before incurring those costs, I think I shoudl wait for the final quote. If Dr Regan's quote comes in too high also, then Im going to have to bite the bullet and go overseas again. I hate dealing with the hassles of travel and fionding a different doc to do follow ups.

On a interesting note, one of Dr B's staff memeber emailed me asking me if I would like to meet with Dr B here in Dallas as he is passing through DFW airport June 20th. I thought that was nice to offer, despite they already know I plan on going to a local surgeon. Who knows, I might yet end up going to Germany after all. Seems Dr Bitan's quote is out of the picture now, and just waiting to see if Dr Regan's $10K estimate will come through. If it ends up significantly over that, I may as well take Dr B 's $18K offer and after insurance out of network $6K deductible and my 30% co pay of $3600 on the balance, total cost will just be $9,600. Im willing to pay a little more to stay in the US, but not more than 5K more.
Again, I would love for Dr B to fix this, but I honestly hate to travel so far again, man, connecting flights (cant fly direct 1st class on miles) and the wait time inbetween the flights, and dragging luggage around all these airports when HURTING, man it sucks to travel. I cant eat that german stuff they feed you at the hospital either.LOL. Only the soup and yogurt were edible. I was living off of Twix candy bars every night last time. LOL

Continuing to wait (sigh).